Shuttle guard



A. G. HOFAMMANN SHUTTLE GUARD Filed Dec. 18, 1925 a@ ym Mgm Patented Oct. 9, 1928.

UNITED"sTAiuasv PATENT oFFicE.

ALBERT G. HOFAMMANN, OF ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

SHUTTLE GUARD.

Application 'flied December is, 1925. serieu No. 76,192.

deflection constitutes a source of 'grave danger to anyone who may be at that-time nearthe loom. lt is the object of this i`nvention to provide a guard of extremely simple and practical design that will not only eli'ectually prevent ythe shuttle froml being so tar deflected from its course as tozrender anyone liable to injury, but that will at the same time return the shuttle to its course should deflection occur.

A further object oi' the invention is to rovide a Ouard that does notinterfere withy the work of the weaver upon the reed.

A still further object is to provide a guard that will automatically assume a protective position should the weaver start the loom without adjusting the guard to said position.

Further objects will tion proceeds.

ln the drawings,

Figure l is a front elevation showing my improved device attached to the hand rail of the loom. Y

Figure 2 is a cross section view on an enlarged scale taken on the plane ofthe line 2--2 in Fig. l, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a cross section on the line 3--3of Fig. 2.

Figure is a cross plane indicated by the line 4-4 on Fig. l.

Similar reference characters indicate the,

same parts in the several-figures.

The numeral l indicates the hand rail of the loom to which my improved device is attached. As is wellunderstood by those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains, the shuttle reciprocates rapidly beneath the hand rail between the shuttle boxes arranged at the ends of saidrail. The usual reed and lay beam of the loom are in back of and below the path of movement of the shuttle. These parts have not been shown on the drawing as they are wellv appear as the descrip-y sectional view on the known'in the art andconstitute no part of myv invention.

, .My guard 'consists'of brackets 2 vattached to thehand rail by screws 4 passing through the attachingr flanges 3 -o said brackets.'A

Fach bracket is provided with anl outwardly kprojecting portion 5 provided with'curved slots 6. 'lhe slots, as will be apparent from the drawings', are sof-formed that at their .inner ends they extend horizontally. From their :horizontal portion they j extend smoothly downwardly. .f Arranged to move in the slots of said brackets areround rods 7 and 8.

The rod 8 isheld fromendwis'e movement and J guided in its downward movement by a collar 9 fixed thereto, fitting in a groove l0 cut in onek of the brackets as clearly shown in Figs. 2and 3. y

The rod 7 's held from endwise movement sov and guided in its movement through the slots by collarsll fixed to said rod on opposite sides of one of the brackets.

Each bracket is provided wi'tha nose portion 12 projecting therefrom. The surfaces of said portions are inclined so that when the deflected shuttle isV guided by the rods to the brackets the engagement of thernose of the shuttle -with said inclined surfaces will y return the shuttle to its vprescribed course.

In operation, the rods arein the position shown in Fig. 1. If it is necessary for the y weaver to get to the reed as for the purpose of y. Vpieclng up, for example, he moves the rods 7- and 8 to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. As the slots at this position vextend horizontally, the rods will remain in their upper vposition'. lHowever, in view of the absence ofany holding means, it will be readily appreciated that should the weaver negligently fail to move ythe rods to their lower or protective osition, the vibration of the loom will imme iately cause the rods to roll Y down the smoothly curved slots into their effective position.

It will thus be seen that an elective shuttle guardV is provided consisting of few and simple parts, that is automatic in operation, and that in view of the absence of holding ymeans the guard will immediately uponl starting the loom, assume its operative posit1on. Y

rlhe invention has been described in detail above. It should be understood that the invention is not limited tosaid details, but includes all variations that fall within the scope of the following claims.

l: claim as my invention:

l. A shuttle guard for a Vloom including a bracket, provided with a slot, a second slotted bracket7 a rod extending` between said brackets, a collar ixedly secured to said rod to hold said rod against'endwise movement, an elongated groove in said first mentioned bracket extending parallel and coextensive with the slot in that bracket, said groove receiving said collar, whereby movement of the rod in the direction of the slot is permitted.

2. A shuttle guard for al loom comprising a pair of spaced brackets designed for attachment to said loom, each bracket being provided With-a plurality of separate slots, each slot including a smooth horizontaler shelf portion and a forwardly and downwardly curved portion, the downwardly curved portion of one 'slot terminating substantially above the end of the downwardly curvedportion of the `other slot, a plurality of independently operable rods having ends of substantially circular cross section extending between said brackets with said ends arranged in said slots, said rods being free to move relative to each other and to said brackets in said slots so that each rod will automatically seek its operative position in the downwardly curved portion of the slot in which it is mounted when the loom is started.

3. A shuttle guard for a loom comprising a plurality of brackets designed for attachment in spaced relation to said loom, each bracket being provided with a pair of slots each comprising a horizontally extending or shelf portion and a curved portion extenddownwardly from said first named portion, the curved portion of one of said slots in each bracket being substantially longer than the curved portion in the other slot of said bracket, a rod provided with cylindrical ends freely movable in the longer slots.

ef adjacent brackets and a second rod having l substantially cylindrical ends freely movable in the shorter slots 'of adjacent bracketsi the arrangement being such that each of said rods is, free to roll from 'the the loom is started.

ALBERT G. HOFAMMANN. 

